By then, it was evident that any and all attempts at controlling her trembling body were utterly fruitless as she shook like a little leaf.
And there it had finally come! The moment she'd been dreading since those words on that damned page had stared her back in the face.
"I was given the honor of severing Abel's head from the rest of his body myself, on the day of his execution,"
Stiff as a figure of ice, the quivering overwhelming her only threatened to shatter her into pieces.
But despite that, despite Silas' awareness of her state, he still pushed on, "The seventh of Yule 1412 was a day I'll never manage to forget if I tried to. The day nightwalkers suffered a devastating loss on the hands of your great grandfather,"
Gaze soldered onto Abel's armor; Arabella's heart sank further down her chest with no guarantee it would ever beat right again. Silas hadn't said the words, but he needn't utter them. The meaning was as clear as day.
"Look at me," he ordered, wrenching yet another shudder out of her.
Very slowly, she took her gemstones off her ancestor's armor for them to finally connect with Silas' diamonds...
As always, the weight of his glare alone caused more tears to well up in her already glistening eyes.
"You have his eyes," he said.
It was as though lightning had struck her in place as even blinking had grown to be too draining of a task.
So stunned, she barely flinched when he stepped towards her, closing the distance between them and coming so near that his warm breath fell on her face.
"We've known who you were from day one and yet we allowed you to stay in our home and promised you safety. Would you care to take a guess as to why that is?" he asked, looking down at her.
The first answer that had traveled her mind in that instant, had been revenge, but not the ghost of a whisper left her parted lips, terrified it'd trigger in him the desire to enact his vengeance right then and there.
"Because you have done us no harm, Arabella,"
For the first time ever since they'd laid eyes on each other, Silas had uttered her name out loud.
There was that softness in his voice that was often absent.
There were unexpectedly, no sudden motions, no battering, no maiming or ripping, not even yelling…
Arabella's eyebrows furrowed very faintly and at that sight Silas elaborated, "Living with grudges is not ideal for a vampire or any creature with a longer life expectancy. It strikes us as odd that humans keep feuds between bloodlines alive way after the demise of their origins. Such a short time to live and yet so much energy and efforts put to waste hating one another," he brought his hand up, closer to her face which made her withdraw away a little, but he only and very gently pushed a strand of her raven hair out of the way, briefly grazing her skin in the process, "Do not fear me or my mother as we mean you no harm either,"
Those were mere words, but they sure took a huge burden off her fatigued shoulders. All of that load pressing against her chest… Just lifted at once thus loosening the restraints around every bodily function such as crying.
A few tears escaped her eyes and streamed down her cheeks, drops so thick and rich in salty waters that they'd cling to her jaw only to let go and fall off the edge of her chin when their weight grew too big to withstand.
"My mother gave you her word that you'll be kept safe and don't think for a second that I don't approve of her decisions," he turned towards the armor by their side, "I suppose you were unaware of the history between our two families because history is told differently beyond our borders," he half asked, half stated.
It took Arabella a moment to find her voice and Silas allowed her all the time she needed in order to speak, "The details of Abel's final battle remain shrouded in mystery and are missing from the history books back in Lustris," she'd uttered the first sentence with a bit of a trembling voice, but at the second, Arabella sounded a tad more confident, "Since everyone involved on the human side had been captured on the same day, I assume the facts never reached Lustris,"
"That makes sense," he nodded once, "It had slipped my mind that we owned the tome on the Sterling bloodline. Do not ever think that I sent you to find it on purpose,"
"That idea never crossed my mind,"
Indeed, it hadn't crossed her mind but was she to trust his words? Was she to allow herself to feel safe within the confines of those walls? Surrounded by him, his mother and solely people that'd bend over backwards to win their favor…
Then again, what other alternative did she truly have?